Painting by Numbers

8: The number of years since September 11, 2001.

Because yesterday was the anniversary of the attack on the twin towers, Kaitlyn and I drove up to Columbus to meet up with the other Ohio Vistas and participate in a different kind of service. We have a lot of Vistas and only one site with which to work, so we were separated into two groups of about 30 people. Group A would begin the job and group B would try to finish it. Kaitlyn and I were in group A, so we met at a building that was once used as a convent. Our job was to paint and touch up some of the rooms so we could turn the building into a shelter for women and refugees. True, our painting supplies were somewhat meager -- we are a nonprofit organization, after all -- but everyone made up for it with enthusiastic optimism.

Our painting supplies

I was actually pretty impressed with the whole building. It was pretty well maintained, and had a certain charm about it. Kaitlyn and I were assigned to a small bedroom/sewing room. Check it out:

The "Before" shot

We eventually referred to this room as "the magical wishing room." Before we set to work we heard the sounds of a stray cat outside, and we both wished aloud that we wished the cat was with us, for more company. Less than five minutes later, the friendly cat found its way into our room! It didn't stay very long, but it was absolutely precious.

There wasn't much room to move around, but we shoved the furniture to the center of the room and taped around the light switches and the sink (Yes, this room had a sink). We found ourselves wishing we had something to step on so we could tape around the ceilings; the only chair in the room didn't look very durable. And what do you know -- a step stool appeared in the closet. Another wish granted by the Miracle Room. Finally, we were ready to paint!

We were told that the painting supplies were downstairs, but when we got there there were only a few more cans available: Gray, white, and green. We were also told that, because of our low resources, we would have to paint two walls one color and the other two walls a different color. We chose white and green and set to work.

After we touched up the paint around the taped areas of the room, we went in search of rollers and those whatchacallits (the pan you put the paint in? I'm blanking). Anyway, we quickly found that there were none available. Wanting to make the most of our two-hour drive, we painted as much of the room as we could with regular paintbrushes, anyway. We didn't get as much done as we would have liked, but another group of Vistas was on their way, and we did do a fantastic job with what we were able to paint (as far as we know).

All in all, it was a pretty fun trip. It was nice to do some direct service, but I wish we could have stayed in our own communities. There are places all around Ohio that need assistance, and I feel like we could have accomplished more by saving ourselves the four hours of driving time. I did like seeing some of the other Vistas, but we were separated into two groups and therefore didn't really have the opportunity to socialize with everyone.

Today Kaitlyn and I are at a resource fair in Dayton, but stories about today are going to have to wait until later.